Waiting, anticipating...

Too much? Here is a link to a previous post on the same theme.


Acts chapter 1
4On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
6So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

7He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.
8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."


Here is a thought I had tonight as I was reading this short passage (ODDS really motivated me to read the book of Acts again for myself, especially since lately I was at a point where I didn't know what to read anymore, I would start one book, and then another, and had a hard time commiting to reading any book at all- ANYWAY as I was saying-).
I'm often like the disciples.
I'll hear good news from God, a glimpse of His plan, and I'll want to get ahead and anticipate all I know must happen one day, telling him: "hey, that would be the perfect occasion to bring this other event about"- as if I were his secretary with my little iCal, wanting to fill in all the calendar spaces myself.
In a sense it's good to be enthusiastic. But I guess one question that God rarely answers is "When?". I'm raking my mind right now, but I don't recall him ever answering that question before it was absolutely necessary. I think every christian since the beginning has believed/hoped that the second return was imminent on a human lifetime scale. Yet here we are in 2006 and generations of christians have come and gone, all of them seeing "the signs".
How does Jesus answer? It is not for you to know (...) you will be my witnesses (...) . They must not try and figure out the answer to that question immediately but instead focus on the present mission.
Often when I read stories of christians being persecuted, sometimes staying for years in prison, God is always there to comfort them and be with them despite the hard times, but they don't get a glimpse of the end until it is practically there.

So I need to stop asking When? and live my life in the here and now.
I had an interesing experience this evening, my next post will be about that.